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HER. The emperor of Russia was my father:
O, that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's trial! that he did but see
The flatness of my misery; yet with eyes
Of pity, not revenge!

Re-enter Officers, with CLEOMENES and DION.

OFFI. You here shall swear upon this sword of

justice, That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have Been both at Delphos; and from thence have

brought

This seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd

Of great Apollo's priest; and that, since then,
You have not dar'd to break the holy seal,

Nor read the secrets in't.

CLEO. DION,

All this we swear.

LEON. Break up the seals, and read.

OFFI. [Reads.] Hermione is chaste, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that, which is lost, be not found.

LORDS. Now blessed be the great Apollo!

HER.

LEON. Hast thou read truth?

Praised!

6 The FLATNESS Of my misery;) That is, how low, how flat I

am laid by my calamity. JOHNSON.

So, Milton, Paradise Lost, book ii.:

66

- Thus repuls'd, our final hope

"Is flat despair." MALONE.

7 Hermione Is CHASTE, &c.] This is almost literally from Greene's novel :

"The Oracle.

"Suspicion is no proofe ; jealousie is an unequal judge; Bellaria is chaste; Egisthus blameless; Franion a true subject; Pandosto treacherous: his babe innocent; and the king shall dye without an heire, if that which is lost be not found." MALONE.

OFFI.

As it is here set down.

Ay, my lord; even so

LEON. There is no truth at all i' the oracle:

The sessions shall proceed; this is mere falsehood.

Enter a Servant, hastily.

What is the business?

SERV. My lord the king, the king!
LEON.
SERV. O sir, I shall be hated to report it:
The prince your son, with mere conceit and fear

Of the queen's speed 8, is gone.

LEON.

SERV.

L

How! gone?

Is dead.

LEON. Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves

Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE faints.] How now there?

PAUL. This news is mortal to the queen:-Look

down,

And see what death is doing.

LEON.

Take her hence : Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will recover.I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion :'Beseech you, tenderly apply to her Some remedies for life. - Apollo, pardon

[Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERM.

My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!-
I'll reconcile me to Polixenes;

New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo ;
Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
For, being transported by my jealousies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the minister, to poison
My friend Polixenes: which had been done,

* Of the queen's SPEED,] Of the event of the queen's trial: so we still say, he sped well or ill. JOHNSON.

But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
My swift command, though I with death, and with
Reward, did threaten and encourage him,
Not doing it, and being done: he, most humane,
And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
Unclasp'd my practice; quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great; and to the hazard
Of all incertainties himself commended',
No richer than his honour :-How he glisters
Thorough my rust! and how his piety
Does my deeds make the blacker2!

9 But that THE GOOD MIND of Camillo tardied

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My swift command,] Here likewise our author has closely followed Greene: promising not only to shew himself a loyal and a loving husband; but also to reconcile himselfe to Egisthus and Franion; revealing then before them all the cause of their secret flight, and how treacherously he thought to have practised his death, if that the good mind of his cup-bearer had not prevented his purpose." MALONE.

I

and to the hazard

Of all incertainties himself COMMENDED.] In the original copy some word probably of two syllables, was inadvertently omitted in the first of these lines. I believe the word omitted was either doubtful, or fearful. The editor of the second folio endeavoured to cure the defect by reading-certain hazard; the most improper word that could have been chosen. How little attention the alterations made in that copy are entitled to, has been shown in my Preface. Commended is committed. See p. 303.

MALONE.

I am of a contrary opinion, and therefore retain the emendation of the second folio.

Certain hazard, &c. is quite in our author's manner. So, in The Comedy of Errors, Act II. Sc. II. :

"Until I know this sure uncertainty." STEEVENS. So many lines equally defective are to be found in Shakspeare, that it is unnecessary to supply any word for the sake of completing the measure. BOSWELL.

2 Does my deeds make the blacker!] This vehement retractation of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppressed with guilt. JOHNSON.

Re-enter PAULINA.

PAUL.

Woe the while !

O, cut my lace; lest my heart, cracking it,
Break too!

1 LORD. What fit is this, good lady ?

PAUL. What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?

What wheels? racks ? fires? What flaying? boil

ing,

In leads, or oils? what old, or newer torture
Must I receive; whose every word deserves
To taste of thy most worst ? Thy tyranny
Together working with thy jealousies, -
Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
For girls of nine !-O, think, what they have done,
And then run mad, indeed; stark mad! for all
Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it.
That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing;
That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant,
And damnable ungrateful3: nor was't much,

3 That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing; That did but show thee, of a FOOL, inconstant,

And DAMNABLE ungrateful :) I have ventured at a slight alteration here, against the authority of all the copies, and for fool read-soul. It is certainly too gross and blunt in Paulina, though she might impeach the King of fooleries in some of his past actions and conduct, to call him downright a fool. And it is much more pardonable in her to arraign his morals, and the qualities of his mind, than rudely to call him idiot to his face. THEOBALD.

66

- show thee, of a fool." So all the copies. We should read :

show thee off, a fool -."

i. e. represent thee in thy true colours; a fool, an inconstant, &c. WARBURTON.

Poor Mr. Theobald's courtly remark cannot be thought to deserve much notice. Dr. Warburton too might have spared his sagacity, if he had remembered that the present reading, by a mode

Thou would'st have poison'd good Camillo's ho

nour,

To have him kill a king; poor trespasses,
More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon
The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter,
To be or none, or little; though a devil
Would have shed water out of fire, ere don't 5:
Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death
Of the young prince; whose honourable thoughts
(Thoughts high for one so tender,) cleft the heart
That could conceive, a gross and foolish sire
Blemish'd his gracious dam: this is not, no,
Laid to thy answer: But the last, -O, lords,
When I have said, cry, woe!-the queen, the

queen,

The sweetest, dearest, geance for't

Not dropp'd down yet. 1 LORD.

creature's dead; and ven

The higher powers forbid !

PAUL. I say, she's dead; I'll swear't : if word, nor

oath,

Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring
Tincture, or lustre, in her lip, her eye,

of speech anciently much used, means only, 'It showed thee first a fool, then inconstant and ungrateful.' JOHNSON.

Damnable is here used adverbially. See vol. x. p. 438, n. 7. MALONE.

The same construction occurs in the second book of Phaer's version of the Æneid:

"When this the yong men heard me speak, of wild they
waxed wood."
STEEVENS.

4 Thou would'st have poison'd good Camillo's honour, How should Paulina know this? No one had charged the King with this crime except himself, while Paulina was absent, attending on Hermione. The poet seems to have forgotten this circumstance. MALONE.

5

though a devil

Would have shed water out of fire, ere don't:] i. e. a devil would have shed tears of pity o'er the damned, ere he would have committed such an action. STEEVENS.

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